1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet containing device and a sheet feeder having the same, and an image forming apparatus having the sheet feeder, and in particular to a sheet containing device having an end regulating member for regulating movement of sheets stacked on a sheet stacking means.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile machine and a composite apparatus thereof, a sheet feeder for feeding sheets contained in a sheet containing device to an image forming portion is provided.
Here, as this sheet containing device, there is one having sheet stacking means for staking sheets, a side regulating member for moving in a direction (hereinafter referred to as a cross direction) perpendicular to a sheet feeding direction to regulate side ends of a sheet and a trailing end regulating member for abutting a trailing end of a sheet on the opposite side of the sheet feeding direction to regulate a position in the sheet feeding direction of the sheet. The sheet containing device moves the side regulating member and the trailing end regulating member to predetermined positions, respectively, according to a size of a sheet, thereby performing positioning and movement regulation of the sheet.
Incidentally, as a method of positioning such a side regulating member, there are known an insertion system that inserts the side regulating member in insertion holes formed in predetermined positions on a bottom surface of a sheet containing device main body and a slide system that provides respectively rack portions in side regulating members arranged so as to be opposed to each other and causes the side regulating members to slide in association with the rack portions via gears engaging with the rack portions.
However, in the conventional sheet containing device having such a side regulating member, if positioning of the side regulating member is performed by the insertion system, it is difficult to form insertion holes because positions for forming the insertion holes are in close proximity to each other, for example, in a sheet containing device in which letter size (LTR-sized) sheets and A4 size sheets, which have a small dimensional difference in the cross direction, are contained. In addition, if a sheet size is changed, the side regulating member has to be removed from the insertion holes once and then inserted in predetermined positions again, which is extremely laborious.
On the other hand, if the slide system is used, since a position of the side regulating member can be changed simply by sliding the side regulating member, positioning can be performed easily.
However, in the slide system, since the rack portions of the side regulating member arranged so as to be opposed to each other are arranged below the sheet stacking means, deflection tends to occur in an abutting portion of the side regulating member that abuts against a sheet. Thus, when a sheet stack is inserted, the abutting portion of the side regulating member may be pressed by the sheet stack and deflected. Then, it is difficult to perform accurate positioning of the sheet stack in the upper part of the side regulating member if the abutting portion is deflected in this manner.
The present invention has been devised in view of such present conditions, and therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a sheet containing device in which positioning of a regulating member is easy and accurate and positioning of stacked sheets is possible, and a sheet feeder and an image forming apparatus that have the sheet containing device.
According to the present invention, there is provided a sheet containing device including: a device main body frame; sheet stacking means that is provided within the device main body frame and supports sheets; end regulating means that abuts an end of sheets stacked on the sheet stacking means to perform positional regulation of the sheets; hitting means that is arranged between the device main body frame and the end regulating means and moves in accordance with the movement of the end regulating means; and abutting means for abutting against the hitting means in a position to which the hitting means moves, in which deflection of the end regulating means is regulated by the device main body frame via the hitting means and the abutting means.
According to the present invention, there is provided a sheet containing device including: a sheet stacking table for supporting a sheet; a side regulating member that is movable in a cross direction of the sheet perpendicular to a sheet feeding direction of the sheet stacked on the sheet stacking table and abuts against a side end of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking table to perform positional regulation in the cross direction of the sheet; a hitting member that hits against a back surface on the opposite side of a sheet abutting surface of the side regulating member and regulates deflection to the back surface side of the side regulating member; a connecting member that moves the hitting member in a direction perpendicular to a moving direction of the side regulating member in association with a moving operation of the side regulating member; and an abutting portion that is provided on the back surface of the side regulating member and is formed in a shape for abutting against the hitting member moved by the connecting member in a position to which the side regulating member moves to regulate the sheet.